The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1887-08-18

number more or less badly injured. Inc
train was composed of six sleeping cars, six
day coaches and chair cars and three bag
gage cara It was carrying $50 passengers,
all excursionists, and was bound for Ma
CARA Falls. The train had been made up all
along the line of the Toledo, Peoria d West
ern road, and the excursionists hailed from
various points In Central Illinois, the bulk OF
them, however, coming from Peoria. Some
Of the passengers came from Canton, from
Ell Paso, Washington and, In fact. all sta
tions along the line from as far west as Bur
lington and Keokuk, Iowa. A special and
cheap rate had been made for the ex-
c%ursion, and all sorts of people took
advantage of it When the train
drew out Of Peoria ut 8 o'clock last
| capacity. Every berth in the six sleepers
was taken, and the day cars carried sixty
| people each. The train was so heavy that
two engines were hitched toit, and when it
| passed this place 1t was an hour and q half
| behind time. Chatsworth. the next station
east of here. is six miles of and the run
| there was made in seven minutes, so the ter
| rible momentum of those fifteen coaches
and two heavy engines shooting through
| space at the rate of a mile a minute can be
understood. No stop was made at Chats
| worth, and on and on the heavy train with
it's living freight sped through the darkness
Of the night Three miles east of Chats
worth there is a little slough and where the
railroad track crosses o run about ten feet
| deep and fifteen feet wide. Over this was
| stretched an ordinary wooden trestle bridge,
and as the excursion train came laundering
down on it what was the horror of the en-
| gineer on the front engine when he saw that
| this bridge was aire! Right up before his
| eyes leaped the bright flames, and the next
instant he was among them. There was
NO CHANCE TO STOP.
Had there been warning. it would have
taken half u mile to stop that onrushing
mass of wood, iron aud humanity, and the
train was within one hundred yards of the
red-tongued messengers of death before
they flashed their fatal signals into the en-
gineer's face. But he passed over in safety.
the first engine keeping the rails. As it
went over the bridge fell beneath it. and it
could only nave been the terrific speed of
the train which saved the lives of the en-
gineer and his fireman. But the next en-
CINE went down, and instantly the deed of
death was done. Car crashed into car;
coaches piled one on top of the other, and In
the twinkling Of an eye nearly one hundred
people found instant death and fifty more
were so hurt they could not live. AS for the
wounded. they were everywhere. Only the
sleeping coaches escaped, and as the startled
and half-dressed passengers came tumbling
out of them they found such a scene of
death as is rarely witnessed, and such work
to do that it seemed as If human hands were
utterly incapable. 1t lacked but five min
utes of midnight Down in the ditch lay the
o111.,1 o;n1 MrNsrf4nL Sool or4 4rn
man, Applegate, badly injured. On top were
piled the three baggage cars, one on top of
another, like a child's toy block house after
he had swept it with his hand. Then came
the six day coaches. They were telescoped
as cars never were before, and three of them
were pressed into just space enough for one.
The second car had mounted off its trucks,
crashed through the car ahead of it, and lay
there resting on the top of the seats, while
| every passenger in the front car was laying
dead or dying underneath. Out of hat car
but four people
CAME OUT ALIVE.
On top Of the second Car lay the third, and
although the latter did not cover its bearer
as completely as the one beneath, it's bottom
was smeared with the blood of its victims.
The other cars were not so badly crushed,
but they were broken and twisted in every
conceivable way, and every crushed timber
and beam represented a crushed human
France and q broker bone. Instantly the air
| was filled with the cries Of the wounded
| and the shrieks of those about to die. The
groans of men, the screams of women
united to make an appalling sound,
and above all could be heard the agonizlng
cries of little children, as in some instances
they lay pinned alongside their parents.
And there was another terrible danger to be
met. The bridge was still burning ana the
wrecked cars were laying on mi around
the fercely burning embers Everywhere
in the wreck were wounded and .unhurt
men, women and children, whose lives
could be saved If they could be
gotten out, but whose death and
Death in a most terrible form was certain if
the twisted wood of the broken cars caught
fire. And to fight the fire there was not a
drop of water, and only some fifty able
bodied men who had still presence of mind
and nerve enough to do their duty. The
only light was the light of the burning
bridge. For four hours they fought like
fiends, and for four hours the victory hung
in the balance. Earth was the only weapon
with which the fire could be fought, and &c
the attempt was made to smother it out
There was no pick or shovel to dig it up; nc
baskets or barrows to carry it in, and So
desperate, they dug their fingers down into
the. earth, which q long drouth had baked
almost as hard as stone, and heaped the
precious handsful thus hardly won upon the
encroaching flames, and with this earthwOrk
built handful by handful s
KEPT BACK THE FOE
While this was going on, brave men creep
underneath the wrecked cars beneath thu
fire and the wooden bars which held prison
ers SO many precious lives, and with pieces
: Of board, and sometimes their hands, bea
back the flames when they flashed up along
!: side some unfortunate wretch who, pinned
down by a heavy beam, looked on helplessl,
=; while it seemed as if his death by fire wa
! certain; and while the fight was thus goinl
: on, the ears of the workers were filled witt
, the groans of dying men, the anguished en-
treaties Of those whose death seemed certain
unless the terrible blaze could be extin
guished, and the cries OF those too badl
hurt to care in what manner the end wer
brought about, so only it would be quick. s
' they dug up the earth with their hands, reck
: less of the blood streaming out from broke
!. finger nails, and heaped it upon little moundl
: while all the while came the heartrendin
;: cry. @For Gods sake don't let US burn t
death" But finally victory was won, the fir
was put out after four hours Of endeavo,
and as its last spark died away a light cam
up in the east to take their place, and daw
came upon a scene of horror. While the figl
l. had been going on men had been dying, an
there were not so many wounded to take OF
Of the wreck an there had been four hours b,